Water heater



July 31, 1928.

O. FOX WATER HETER 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed March 28, 1925 MW vw GHG: nu11 5 July 31, 1928.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 28, 1925 Patented July 31, 192.8.

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE.

OTTO FOX, OF LAKEWOOD, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE BRYANT HEATER AND MANUFAC-TUBING OOMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION F OHIO.

WATER HEATER.

` animation mea man as, im. serial No. 18,967.

This invention relates to boilers or water heaters such as are employedin connection with hot water storage tanks and with the heating plantsof dwellings and other buildings. Boilers of the type referred to above,in so far as the water conveying portions are concerned, are generally.formed o f a series of parallel cast iron sections provided with frontand rear .upright conduit portions which are connected together bytransverse ducts. These sections are connected together at the top andbottom by inlet and outlet headers or manifolds, the inlet header beingarranged at the bottom and the outlet header at the top and one -beingon the front side and the other on the rear side of the boiler.

Generally the transverse ducts of adjacent sections are staggered sothat the flame and heated gases in passing from the burners to theoutlet pipe or stack are baiiled to an extent by the overlappingportions of the ductsof adjacent sections so as to take tortuouspassageways in passing upward, and thereby have a good heating action onthe water in the ducts.

A very good example of boiler or water heater constructed as above, isillustrated in my prior Patent No. 1,025,389, granted May 7 1912..

i The principal object of the present mvention is to provide aneliicient boiler of this general type wherein the cast iron sections orelements are similar, but are formed so that Y the ducts ofadjacentsections overlap each other as witli the staggered arrangement of ductswhich requires two different castings in forming the adjacent sections.

In accordance with the present invention, the ducts are madeasymmetrical so that 'the 40 upper portions of the ducts of one sectionwill overlap the lower portions of the ducts of the adjacent section orsections, and render this arrangement highly eiicient in action, andmore particularly to prevent the heated air and products of combustionfrom crowdin to one side of the boiler by passing diagona y upward andlaterally, the ducts of the different sections, particularly thelowermost ducts are connected by webs which-serve to compel the heatedair to pass in the vdesired tortuous paths upwardly be-l tween thesections.

The invention may be further briefly summarized as consisting in certainnovel details of construction, and combinations and ai'- rantglements ofparts which will be described in pended claims.

In the accompanying sheets of drawings wherein I have shown thepreferred embodiment of the invention, Fig. 1 is a front view of theboiler partly in section -along the line 1-1 of Fig. 2; and Fig. 2 is atransverse vertical sectional view with the section taken between two ofthe adjacent sections or elements of the boiler.

Referring now to the drawings, the boiler may have any suitable base 10which generally carries a number of burners 11 to which gas may besupplied by a pipe 12.

The water-conveying portion of the boiler 'consists of a number ofsimilar parallel cast iron sections 13, which are connected together atthe bottom and in this instance on the rear side by an inlet header ormanifold 14, and at the top and in this instance at the front by anoutlet header or manifold 15. The sides of the boiler are provided withside plates 16 and at the top there is a so-called flue top 18 adaptedto be provided with an outlet 19 for the products of combustion. At thefront the spaces between the sections 13 are closed by removable panels20, but at the rear the sections it closely together. It is to beunderstood that in practice the entire boiler is enclosed in a cover,

usually of sheet metal and asbestos, but the same is not shown, as myinvention does not reside in these parts.

Referring now to the sections 13, it will be noted that each section iscomposed of upright conduit portions 13* and 13", located at the frontand rear sides respectively of the section, and slightly inclinedtransverse ducts 13 connecting the conduit portions. It may be herestated that the number of ducts 13, and therefore the height of thesec-tions will depend upon the required cae specification and set forthin the appacity, and therefore the number. may be greater than hereshown. It is to be noted that portions of the 'ducts of one sectionoverlap the ducts of the adjacent section or sections, and in order thatthe sections may all consist of similar castings, formed Afrom onepattern, the overlapping of 'adjacent ducts is obtained by making theducts asymmetrical, and in this instance, substantially "Z-shaped,'withthe upper and lower portions of the ducts of each section extendedlaterally a suilicient distance so that when the sections are assembledside by side, the upper ortions of the ducts of one'section, whicportions project in one direction, will overlap the oppositelyprojecting lower portions of the ducts of the adjoining section. Theabove described-shape of ducts and the l overlapping arrangement may beutilized :for all the ducts of the different sections, but I find thatbetter results are obtained by shortening the laterally extendingportions of the bottom. row of ducts, as indicated ,inl

Fig. 1, so that they do notoverlap, these ducts being designated 13",.

The asymmetric or Z-shape gives the ducts a more or less generalinclination upwardly and to the right, as the ducts are viewed in Fig.1, and as a consequence there would be a tendency, if there were openspaces be tween the superimposed ducts of each section, for the hot airand products of combustion to have an upward and lateral flow crosswiseof the boiler in the direction of this general inclination, so as tocrowd the heat to one side, rendering the burners on such siderelatively ineffective and resultin ina nonuniform heating action in thedi ferent sections, To avoid this lateral flow through or between thesuperimposed ducts of the different sections, the ducts of each sec- Ijtionv are joined by webs 13d, thus closing the otherwise open spaces.It is not essential that these webs be employed between all the tol With`the above arrangement the heat` comes in direct contact with allportions 'of all the ducts of the different sections inn the zigzagcourses upward, there being no dead vspaces, especially as the ducts aredesigned with this asymmetrical or zi .zag construction everywhere withinclin surfaces.

While I have shown thel preferred con-- y' struction, VI do, not desireto be confined to l spirit and scope of my the exact details shown, andparticularly to the exact illustrated shape of the ducts, but

aim in 'my claims to cover all .modifications which do not involve adeparture from the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I Having described my invention', I. claim:

1. A boiler or water heater` composed of heated gases.

a series of sections arranged side by side, each section having frontand' rear conduit portions and spaced transverse ducts com municating attheir ends with the conduit portions, the walls of the ducts betweentheir ends being joined vone to another and the ducts having on oppositesides of a ver-- tical section longitudinally disposed lateralextensions, those on one side being formed on the upper portions of theducts and those on the other side being formed on the lower portionsofthe' ducts, the ducts of the adjacent sections being spaced to providepassageways for heated gases. l

2. A boiler or water heater composed of a Series of sections arrangedside. by side, each section having front and rearconduit portions andsuperposed transverse ducts extending between them, the walls ofadjacent superposed ducts of each section being joined between theconduit port-ions and the ducts of adjacent sections having overlappingextensions, the extensions runninef longitudinally 0f the duce on bothsafes of each section, those on oneside being formed f on the lowerportionsof the ducts andl those on the other side being formed on the uper portions of the ducts, the ducts of the a jacent sections beingspaced to provide passageways for heated gases. f 3.. A boiler or waterheater composed of a series of sections arranged side by side eachsection having front and rear conduit portions anda continuous wallextending between them, the wall being formed with a plurality ofsuperposed ducts which communicate at their ends with the conduitportions andare formed' on opposite sides with lateral extensions whichare disposed longitudinally of the ducts and overlap the extensions ofthe ducts of the adjacent section or sections, the duct extensions onone side of a section being` formed on the lower portions of the ductsand those on the other side being formed on the upper portions of the lducts, the ducts ofY the adjacent sections being spaced to providepassageways for 4. boileror water heater com osed of a series of similarsections arrang side by 1 side and composed-of front and rear uprightconduit portions joined by transverse substantially Z-shaped ducts, thesaid ducts of the adjacent sections being spaced to provide passagewaysfor heated gases, the ducts l of one section overlapping ducts of theladjoining section or sections, and at least the lowermost ducts of thedifferent sections being joined by webs.

5. l'A boiler ror water heater composed of 1 a series of sectionsarranged side by side, each section comprising front and rear conduitportions, spaced transverse ducts connecting the same and continuouswebs closing the spaces between the ducts, the said 1 ducts of theadjacent sections bein spaced to provide passagewaY s for heate gases,each duct having latera y inclined side walls and oppositely extendinglateral projections at the upper and lower ends thereof, the extensionsof the ducts of one section extending between projections of ducts ofadjacent sections to form tortuous' pasageways beutween the sections,the lowermost ducts having side walls more nearly vertical than theducts above the same to provide a freer passageway for gases betweenthem.

6; Aboiler or water heater com osed of a series of similar sectionsarrange side by side and composed of front and rea` upright conduitportions joined by transverse substantially- Z-shaped ducts, the saidducts of the adjacent sections being spaced to provide passageways forheated gases, the ducts of one section bein horizontally aligned withducts of the adgjoining section or sections and having projectingportions which over` lap to form tortuous passageways between 'andcontinuous webs closing the spaces between the ducts, the ducts beinghollow and substantially r2-shaped, thereby providing hollow staggeredprojections which with respect to the projections of adjacent ducts inadjacent sections are partially overlapping-` thereby providing tortuouspassageways between the sections, the lower ducts of each section havinshorter projections to thereby provide wider spaces between transverselyadjacent. ducts than the spaces betweeen ducts above the same.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto aix my signature.

OTTO FOX.

